The International Baccalaureate Offers an Ideal System of Standards for All Students

The International Baccalaureate program exhibits almost every aspect of an ideal system of standards, curriculum and assessments, most especially at the diploma level. The I.B. diploma program's carefully developed sets of curricular materials offer teachers compelling choices about complex texts and instructional methods within strict, fair parameters about text selection and requisite student performance tasks. Students must demonstrate mastery of essential content and skills through a practical variety of formative and summative assessments: oral and written, internal (in class) and external (in “on-demand” testing environments).

Unlike the Advanced Placement program, the I.B. diploma signifies a much more textured and colorful picture of a student’s whole high school career.

Mechanisms also exist to ensure the quality of teachers’ performance, so that an A in Zambia means the same thing as an A in Kalamazoo. I.B. teachers worldwide receive consistent and coherent professional development. In short, students and teachers are both held reasonably accountable for learning and teaching in the I.B. diploma program, making it a model for any U.S. state educational system designed to demonstrate the most robust measure of a student’s achievement within and beyond classroom doors.

While ensuring that its students study a rich variety of subjects, and allowing them to study subjects of interest in deeper detail, the I.B. also requires that students study two languages and the “theory of knowledge;” write a real research paper, the 4,000-word “Extended Essay;” and perform weekly community service. Unlike the Advanced Placement program, which allows students to convey their knowledge of select subject areas, the I.B. diploma signifies a much more textured and colorful picture of a student’s whole high school career.

The only downsides of establishing more I.B. diploma programs in the United States are the limitations that the world history and language curricula pose for conveying the full range of essential content in American history and literature. That said, schools could easily augment the program or offer additional classes to meet these critical needs. U.S. schools would do well to adopt many more I.B. diploma programs so that more students can take advantage of this extraordinary opportunity.